BURTON REVIEWS (and news)

To preface this special article I’d just like to say this isn’t my definitive, the only way I see it working, answer. There are most definitely other and better ways the prequels could be done than what I am about to lay out and what was done on screen. Speaking of the prequel Star Wars movies; I actually grew up loving them, being obsessed with the Phantom Menace from a young age and seeing each one I could in cinema. While looking back with more aged and critiquing eyes I can definitely see their faults but I would argue this: While the live action films did an awful job at creating the origins of one of the most powerful and terrifying presences in the galaxy far far away, making an unbelievable and creepy as hell romance between a mis-aged couple half comprised of an obsessive and whiny young Jedi; the prequels, in my opinion, do actually create a strong Jedi story. With badass lightsaber fights, great expanding of the mythology, a more mature subtext that is interesting to delve ...

After the disastrous launch of Assassins Creed Unity the franchise was tarnished in many people’s eyes beyond redemption; a feat even it’s overly convoluted, and some of the time nonsensical, plot couldn’t achieve. But, now with already seven Assassins Creed titles in my gaming library I was in this for the long haul, and went down to buy Syndicate on launch day not with the upmost of enthusiasm but more of a sense of loyalty to the franchise which was once such an outstanding example of fantastic storytelling, character development, and both open world traversal and architecture. And while Syndicate definitely doesn’t scale the brilliant heights in these fields that the astonishing Assassins Creed 2 did, I definitely feel that my loyalty in some part has been repaid. The Story of Assassins Creed Syndicate takes place in a 19 th century London that is plagued by poverty and is trapped in the dangerous iron grip of the corrupt, who just so happen to also be Templars. Using the spec...

After the pretty much perfect Skyfall I was more than pumped for the next Bond film, especially as the team who made Skyfall were sticking around for it. And while the trailers for Spectre didn’t really seem to be hinting at the heights that Skyfall had accomplished I still had full faith in returning director, Sam Mendes, and team to deliver another sensational Bond; and hey Christoph Waltz’s villain was shaping up to be another terrifying shadowy figure that should be a joy to watch tear up a scene. Sadly the small nagging feeling in the back of my mind turned out to be correct and not only was this a disappointing follow up to Skyfall but a mis-shaped end to Craig’s tenure as Bond. The story of Spectre sees Bond attempt to hunt down and eradicate the shadowy force known as Spectre, a force that seems to be the horrifying puppet master to many of not only the world’s misfortunes but many of Bond’s own personal tragedies too. While that synopsis of the story makes this film sound...